Bad blogger.... Bad!

I'm sorry for no updates lately. At first there wasn't much to comment on, and then I was playing in the mountains for a week; also Im great at finding excuses. But here goes, with only 2 weeks left to fill people in I better make it a good one.

So after arriving in Essaouira on the coast of Spain I ended up staying for 9 days and have officially deemed this my favorite city in Morocco (even though I have seen less than 6 cities). Here I explored the shops, ate lots of interesting food (raw sea urchin being the weirdest), and played on the beach for several days. I figured i deserved it since I walked over 900kms. But as anyone who knows me might guess, I started to feel a little lazy and stir crazy.

This is when I decided I should climb a mountain; the tallest mountain in North Africa, Mt Toubkal (4162m). Venturing up into the wild with a cool Polish traveller named Radik and our Mule, we hiked for about 5 days though valleys and amazing little Berber villages finishing off with the summit of Mt Toubkal. Photos will come soon, because my camera had died and I need to steal photos from Radik and get my "Konice" disposable camera developed... thats right it says Konice, not Konica. That is why you need to look closely before you buy things in Morocco.

Now... I'm back in Essaouira for the final week before I fly to London.

Morocco's "Grande Taxis"

Ok... for those of you who haven't been to Morocco I'm going to give you a lesson on taxis. Here there are two types of taxis, petit (small) and grande (large).

The petit taxis take you around town and do short little distances much like at home, there is not much you need to know. You can tell its a petit taxi because its usually the size of an old Nissan Micra.

The grande taxis, usually older Mercedes-Benz 4 door sedans, will take you longer distances, quite often inbetween towns and over a few hundred kms. You bargain for the price you want to pay rather than have a meter, so do your research before hand to know you're getting a good deal.

What you dont expect in the grande taxis is that they usually cram 7 passengers plus the driver into this 5 seater sedan. And then they attempt to push this car as hard and fast around crazy corners and around slower vehicles (which is everyone else on the road). Most of these passing tactics are executed on the said corners and through villages with slow spee signs.

Lastly to top it off, not one of us are wearing seatbelts during this journey; I did get to help fix a flat tire enroute though. So needless to say is that I had a great time.

Finally... some hot sunshine and sand.

Ok well the sand I'm referring to is the Saharah dessert, but I'm on my way today to the beach in Agadir.

I finished up spain with a hike to the coast and axplored Fisterra and Muxia, both adorable little coastal fishing and harbour town where the atmosphere is quaint, seafood expensive and weather is crap. (Not crap but just not the sunshine i was hoping for.)

Now I have been in Morocco for 5 days, most of zhich was in Marrakach exploring the palaces and souks and resaurants. I did tqke off on a 3 day excursion to the Sahara dessert. We got to go for a camel ride, sleep in Berber tents in the dessert and ride in a bus for a total of about 16 hours.

Mom, you would be proud; i helped (not that she really needed any) an old Berber woman prep some sheeps and camel wool for spinning and weaving. I would like to thank you for those skills that I'm sure are hereditary.

Today i leave for the coastal beach town of Agadir and soon to Essaouira where I think I'll spend the rest of the month. I surprising chose the safer of two options i was considering. The other option was to head down the coast to Dakar, south of Morocco; but someone told me that to get there I would have to pass through Mauritania which right now is a bad scene where...

"There is a high threat of kidnapping in Mauritania and surrounding countries by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQ-M)."

So Im going to stay by the beach. Ciao

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/middle-east-north-africa/mauritania